1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus that processes print data having a hierarchical structure and to which metadata can be added, a method for controlling the information processing apparatus, and a storage medium therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, as a processing speed of and the image quality of a product output by an electrophotographic printing apparatus and an inkjet type printing apparatus have become higher, the print on demand (POD) market has been widespreadly utilized. In the POD market, digital printing based on electronic data is executed by making the most of a digital image forming apparatus, such as a digital copying machine or a digital multifunction peripheral (MFP). By using a digital image forming apparatus, which can implement plateless printing, a job of a relatively small lot can be printed with low costs and in a short delivery time.
In the POD market, in which electronic data is used as its characteristic, variable data printing (VDP) is used as a print method. In a VDP document, which is used in the VDP, a fixed portion and a variable portion are separated from each other. In addition, data of the variable portion is supplied from a data source, such as a relational database (RDB) or a comma separated value (CSV) file. If a column (field) of the data source is associated with a variable portion of a document template and if the field associated with the variable portion of the document template is applied to each row (record) of the data source, print jobs having slightly mutually different contents can be executed.
Most of VDP documents whose data has been supplied thereto in the above-described manner are described using the structured page description language (structured PDL) for VDP. The “structured PDL” refers to the PDL whose document structure is described using a markup language. The structured PDL is described using a markup language based on eXtended Markup Language (XML).
In addition, recently, a structured PDL to which metadata can be added has been developed. More specifically, the structured PDL includes personalized print markup language (PPML) and portable document format variable and transactional (PDF/VT). Further, metadata can be described in each document layer of the structured PDL to which metadata can be added. In general, metadata include a key and a value. The key in metadata includes various descriptions, such as a name, an address, age, sex, and personal preference of a recipient. A value includes the actual content of each key. For example, “male” or “female” may be described as a value of the key “sex”. As values of the key “age”, a value “24” or “52” can be described.
Meanwhile, recently, a job ticket has been widespreadly utilized. The job ticket can be utilized to execute print setting to a specific document layer of the structured PDL to which metadata can be added and to execute different print setting to different recipients.
The above-described job ticket includes a job definition format (JDF). A JDF job ticket can include a description of a print setting, for example, for printing data on a matte sheet if the key “sex” has a value “male” for a specific recipient while printing data on a gloss sheet if the key “sex” has a value “female” for a specific recipient.
Conventionally, software for executing print setting has a print setting user interface, such as a printer driver or a hot folder application. However, via a conventional print setting user interface, a user is allowed only to execute a print setting to the entire PDL data or only to execute an exceptional print setting to a specific page. Accordingly, with the conventional method, in processing a VDP document described using a structured PDL to which metadata can be added, a user can neither execute a print setting to each layer of the PDL nor execute variable print setting that is variable according to a value of the metadata added to the PDL.
As discussed by Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2003-316548 and 2003-316549, a conventional method generates a group of metadata included in a VDP document and having the same value (referred to as VDP family) and executes a print setting to the group. After executing the print setting, a job is divided in the unit of a group, and the print setting is output as a job ticket (JDF job ticket). Then, the job and the print setting are input to a printer.
However, if the above-described conventional method is used, in executing a print setting to a VDP document, it is necessary to execute the print setting to the very VDP document whose data size is large. Accordingly, because it is necessary for the user to execute the print setting to the very VDP document, the conventional method may degrade the usability.